Montgomery turns page after playoff exit

Montgomery’s Mason Mize helped the Bears post a 30-win season and reach the Region III-4A semifinals.

Montgomery’s Mason Mize helped the Bears post a 30-win season and reach the Region III-4A semifinals.

Photo: Staff Photo By Eric Swist

Photo: Staff Photo By Eric Swist

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Montgomery’s Mason Mize helped the Bears post a 30-win season and reach the Region III-4A semifinals.

Montgomery’s Mason Mize helped the Bears post a 30-win season and reach the Region III-4A semifinals.

Photo: Staff Photo By Eric Swist

Montgomery turns page after playoff exit

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MONTGOMERY — Chris Morris met with his Montgomery players for about five minutes after the Bears’ 16-4 loss to a powerful Tomball squad on Friday night in the Region III-4A semifinals.

Then he spent another few minutes with his seniors, players who helped Montgomery get to the state tournament last year, young men about to go their separate ways.

It was an emotional moment.

“Some of those seniors have been playing varsity ball for me since they were freshmen,” Morris said. “Garrett Hrozek has been my starting shortstop since he was a freshman. Jimmy Dominick has been my center fielder since he was a freshman. (Outfielder) Will Fox came up to the varsity as a sophomore.

“As a coach, you couldn’t ask for a better group of guys. It’s a special group. They played the game the right way. Even the kids who didn’t play that much, they worked hard, they set a good example. They had a 30-win season, they went to the state tournament as juniors. They’ve set the bar pretty high.”

Montgomery finished the season 30-7-1. The Bears won three playoff series before falling to Nick Banks and the Cougars. Ty Boland had Montgomery on the verge of a Game 1 victory, needing just one strike to put Tomball away, when Ishmael Edwards belted a three-run home run for a 4-2 win on Thursday night in Tomball.

Morris didn’t think that devastating loss had an effect on Friday’s game, but Boland admitted it probably did.

“After that walk-off, they had all the momentum,” Boland said. “They played with an attitude. We were down after the game Friday night. But Tomball’s a good team. It was real tough because we’d worked so hard to get to this point.”

Boland, who struck out nine batters in Game 1, will play baseball at Seminole State in Oklahoma. Fox has signed with TCU. Hrozek is still weighing his options, while left fielder Bodhi Bell plans to play football and baseball at McNeese State.

Pitcher Chris Cooper, who was injured most of the season, is heading to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, and Dominick and catcher Cody Conn are planning to play at Houston Baptist and Williams Baptist in Arkansas, respectively.

“It’s a tough way to end the season,” said Montgomery second baseman Nate Van Dyke, one of the few starters who will return to the Bears next season. “They’ve been a great senior class. (Tomball) is just a good team. They flat-out beat us.”

The Cougars capitalized on three hit batsmen and two walks in an eight-run second inning on Friday night, which wiped out Montgomery’s early 3-0 lead.